note 49755 added to function.preg-replace

ive never used regex expressions till now and had loads of difficulty trying to convert a [url]link here[/url] into an href for use with posting messages on a forum, heres what i manage to come up with: $patterns = array( "/\[link\](.*?)\[\/link\]/", "/\[url\](.*?)\[\/url\]/", "/\[img\](.*?)\[\/img\]/", "/\[b\](.*?)\[\/b\]/", "/\[u\](.*?)\[\/u\]/", "/\[i\](.*?)\[\/i\]/" ); $replacements = array( "<a href=\"\\1\">\\1</a>", "<a href=\"\\1\">\\1</a>", "<img src=\"\\1\">", "<b>\\1</b>", "<u>\\1</u>", "<i>\\1</i>" ); $newText = preg_replace($patterns,$replacements, $text); at first it would collect ALL the tags into one link/bold/whatever, until i added the "?" i still dont fully understand it... but it works :) ---- Manual Page -- http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.preg-replace.php Edit -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=edit+49755 Delete: added to the manual -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+49755&report=yes&reason=added+to+the+manual Delete: bad code -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+49755&report=yes&reason=bad+code Delete: spam -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+49755&report=yes&reason=spam Delete: useless -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+49755&report=yes&reason=useless Delete: other reasons -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+49755&report=yes Reject -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=reject+49755&report=yes Search -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php